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Dec 15, 2005

Albumcraft · by David Donald

Attention people like Lil’ Wayne, Juelz Santana, Styles P, Jeezy: The best album is not the album with the most good tracks on it.

If it were, maybe it would be a good idea to put out albums with 24 songs on it. It’s not. Don’t get it twisted, it is essential to actually have good songs on there (another common mistake). But an album is supposed to be a somewhat cohesive work when viewed as a whole. If you don’t want to do that, don’t put out albums.

Trust me, you didn’t just make a classic album with over twenty tracks on it. Not saying it can’t be done, but you didn’t. And if you think you did, release it as a mixtape and if it really is a classic people will know and it will become sought-after. Then you can go back and rerelease it in official form.

It’s easy to release singles now, just flood iTunes with them. Or put out 5 song EPs – all the hipster rock band favorites are doing it, why can’t hipster cocaine rap favorites do it? No, seriously, what’s wrong with EPs? It’s not like I probably want to listen to you for an hour and twenty minutes at a time anyway.

Comments for "Albumcraft"

  1. Let’s not forget to mention the album art.

    No. Using every photoshop filter and effect known to man does not make your album art memorable.

    Please, only hire REAL designers, not your buddy who has a bootleg copy of photoshop on his PC.
    — mGee    Dec 15, 05:18 PM   
  2. Well there are certainly bad filters. (See lame and unnecessary lens flares on albums by Cee-Lo and AZ)

    But I like to think the more ridiculous Pen and Pixel type covers actually created a distinctively flamboyant and almost tongue in cheek style. (See: Big Bear – Doin Things)

    While we’re at it, quit making mixtape covers that rip off movie posters.
    — David    Dec 15, 06:23 PM   
  3. Big Bear is a perfect example of some DIY type wackness overtaking album covers these days. Horrible selections and mad effects/filters being used on that.

    You can also check anything released by No Limit records for an idea of the type of wackness I’m talking about.

    David, I feel you regarding Mixtape covers. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that all mixtape covers are wack. But you kinda expect mixtapes to be kinda wack. It pains me to see stuff released by labels that looks as bad and some case worse then do it yourself mixtape covers.
    — mGee    Dec 15, 07:07 PM   
  4. I definitely feel you on most of this. It pains me to think how much better the Juelz and Weezy albums could’ve been if they’d been half as long. Seriously, 22 tracks? That’s how long a DOUBLE album used to be.

    With the mixtape movie poster covers though – as played as that concept is – I think that it’s somewhat fitting seeing as it highlights the fundamentally disposable nature of mixtapes.
    — mike    Dec 16, 12:11 AM   
  5. I’d rather listen to a short album that’s dope all the way through (Beauty and the Beat) than have to sift through some A&R’s wreckage to find some gems.
    — sankofa    Dec 16, 09:08 AM   
  6. Definitely one of the more annoying aspects of modern day Hiphop. I attribute this at least in part to the decline of the single Hiphop producer as the one putting the album together. Not that there weren’t (and still are) exceptions.

    Wayne deserves a little credit though. His album isn’t nearly as exhausting as Jeezy or (the worst culprit) Juelz.
    — Sach    Dec 17, 12:47 PM